Stocks Put in a Good Week

(Updated with commentary, stock prices.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- More promising signs for earnings season emerged Friday, topping off a week that took the major averages more than 4% higher for the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.07 points, or 0.8%, to close at a new 52-week high, 9864.94, while the S&P 500 edged up 6.01 points, or 0.6%, to 1071.49. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 15.35 points, or 0.7%, to 2139.28.

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"We're seeing again an extremely resilient market that certainly wants to go higher," says Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst, Schaeffer's Investment Research, "and this week we've had the reversal off of the low, and that's basically sustained itself even this morning when we opened a little lower."

Helping to sustain the vibes started earlier this week with Alcoa's(AA Quote) earnings, Chevron(CVX Quote) said it expects its third-quarter earnings to be significantly higher compared to the second quarter on higher crude oil prices and gains from asset sales and tax items.

Stocks initially opened lower as the dollar firmed after comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The Fed chief, who said "accommodative policies will likely be warranted for an extended period," added that "at some point, however, as economic recovery takes hold, we will need to tighten monetary policy to prevent the emergence of an inflation problem down the road."

"The comments were relatively neutral," says Sparks, adding that they don't really tell us anything new.

But "the issue there is he certainly didn't come out with those comments as an afterthought," says Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist for Prudential Annuities. Investors obviously do not believe the economy is ready for the Fed to exit completely, but it's just a subtle change in wording, she says. "It's that language that will be the language we see officially in the next Fed statement -- it's as if they're laying the ground work to get the market little by little ready."

The dollar gained strength against the yen and euro on Bernanke's remarks, as gold -- which closed at three consecutive all-time highs this week -- fell by $7.60 to $1,048.71 an ounce.